After movie review

MOVIE TITLE: After

RATING: PG-13

LENGTH: 1 hour, 46 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: C

IN A NUTSHELL: This movie was originally a fan fiction posted on Wattpad based on members of the hugely popular boy band One Direction. Hardin’s character is loosely based on Harry Styles. There are 5 parts included in the After (The After Series), none of which I have read. I am CLEARLY not the target audience for them. If you are, you’ll probably enjoy the movie. If you’re a mom worried about your kids making dumb choices in college, you’ll hate this dumb movie and spend most of the time rolling your eyes. Can you tell you which camp I fall in?

Sooo many raging hormones. Sooo many clichés. On the other hand, good for Anna Todd for writing a novel and getting it turned into a movie!

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

College partying
Pre-marital relations
Talk of fake IDs to get into bars
Cleavage and students in their underwear
Tessa says to her mom, “Can you please just trust me?” And then all of the wild behavior starts…
Marijuana
Profanity
Lesbians make out and one takes her shirt off.

THEMES:

“There are moments in our lives that seem to define us, moments we keep going back to.” – Tessa (Josephine Langford)
“We change and we discover who we really are.” – Noah (Dylan Arnold)

THINGS I LIKED:

The movie was written by 3 women and a man.
Selma Blair looked amazing.
Josephine Langford is in every single scene of the film.
The author of the novel, Anna Todd, actually has a small cameo appearance in the movie. She walks out of Vance Publishing at the same time Tessa enters the building towards the end of the movie.
Hero Fiennes Tiffin is actually the nephew of talented actor Ralph Fiennes.
There is a lot of talk about books and classic literature. As an author, I love that. By the way, you can find all of my books on Amazon. Just do a quick search for my name (Trina Boice). Shameless plug…

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

Super unimpressed the first time we meet Hardin in the movie. He’s basically a jerk. Why would Tessa even like him? Their attraction is purely physical since they disagree about almost everything. She cheats on her sweet boyfriend who seems to truly care about her. Lots of kissing. No real depth to their relationship.
The film didn’t pay attention to details very well. For example, the college where Tessa attends is supposed to be Washington Central (fictitious), but you see a sign on campus that actually says Emory, which is a real university in Georgia where I lived for 15 years.
The students make fun of Tessa for being a virgin.
Why would Tessa kiss Hardin after she just saw him with another girl? Come on girls, have some self-respect.
Tessa says, “I hate what I did to him” after she cheated on her high school boyfriend and then Hardin says, “Tessa, it’s not your fault.” Yeah, right. Then whose is it?
Hardin holds a moody grudge against his father and won’t forgive him. So big of him. As if he has never made any mistakes.

FUNNY LINES:

None. There really wasn’t any humor.

INTERESTING LINES:

“Who brings books to college?” – Steph Jones (Khadijha Red Thunder) who has clearly never read a book before
“Love is just a transaction. We’re all hard-wired for desire.” – Hardin (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) That doesn’t sound very romantic to me. Why on earth would a girl fall for a guy who believed that?

OTHER MOVIES LIKE THIS YOU MIGHT ENJOY:

Twilight